German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised on Wednesday to scale back Germany’s generous system of subsidies to the renewables sector if she is re-elected in September, a move that would reduce the costs of her green revolution on consumers.

« Dealing with the renewable energy reform is the most urgent of the energy topics, in my view, » Merkel told a conference of the BDEW utility industry group.

Energy prices are likely to become a hot election topic as consumers have been hit by surcharges which pay for the energy shift. Due in part to fears that German industry will become uncompetitive if it has to pay too much for energy, many firms have enjoyed exemptions from some of charges, raising the bill for households.

Any reform to the renewable energy law and its system of subsidies are a political balancing act as energy policy pits the entrenched interests of a strong green lobby with influential German industry and the electorate.